Public health community calls on EU to save school fruit scheme

The Commission is considering suspending the scheme as it sees it as an obstacle to achieve its better regulation and CAP simplification goals. Yet, the cost of the scheme is minimal - 0.25% of the EU agricultural budget (from €90-150 million) and it has only been in place for 5 years.

There are 22 million overweight children in the EU of which 5.1 million obese - an EU-wide trend set to make another 1.2 million children overweight and 300,000 obese each year. Educating the youngest is a key starting point to reverse the trends contributing to the obesity epidemic and rising numbers of people suffering preventable chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several cancers.